Leiston Abbey 2013

The ‘Saints & Secrets: the Lost History of Leiston Abbey’ project is another crowdfunding and crowdsourcing success for DigVentures and our worldwide team of Venturers. Not only was it the first project offered on our DigStarter fudning platform, but we exceeded our fundraising and participation goals, raising over £18k to become the first team ever to run a full programme of archaeological excavation on the site.

Together, DigVentures and our Venturers completed a two-week research excavation at Leiston Abbey, discovering that the mysterious humps and bumps around the Abbey are actually a previously unknown prehistoric phase on the site, as well as potentially revealing the lost eastern range of the Abbey complex. We had one of thenicest campsites any of us had ever seen, fantastic food, and of course the antics of Site Dog to keep us amused!

Most importantly, we welcomed many local residents and other people to Leiston Abbey who had never previously visited – with over 49%being new audience for the site. What a result! And the best news is that we’ll be back in July 2014to carry on with research, train more enthusiastic learners, and meet even more people to come to visit the dig. See you there!

More about Saints & Secrets

We captured all the archaeology and fun on film, so that everyone could be with us every step of the way, even if you couldn’t join us on site. Our videos are a unique record of site life, and give a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s really like.Check out the videos

We took hundreds of photos documenting every aspect of the dig. Have a look atour project here

Our Venturers

We’ve talked a lot about our Venturers: the worldwide team who funded the dig, as well as got into the trenches with during the excavation. But who are they? The map below shows where they come from, and we’ve also got some great profiles that tell a little bit more of their stories.

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